The number of people who were in Germany at the end of 2018 to seek protection from war or persecution increased to nearly 1.8 million, the Federal Statistical Office said on Thursday.
The number of people seeking protection, who were registered in Germany’s central register for foreigners was up six per cent or by 101,000 people when compared to the end of 2017.
People seeking protection are foreigners, who are in Germany for humanitarian reasons.
The majority of those registered – 71 per cent – had entered the country in the last five years.
Around 1.3 million people had been provided international protection by the end of 2018, an increase of 11 per cent compared to a year earlier.
Another 306,000 people were still waiting for decisions on their status at the end of 2018 – 43,000 less than a year earlier and 269,000 less when compared with the high point at the end of 2016.
The decrease is driven by the processing of existing asylum procedures but also the still declining number of new asylum requests.
There was, however, an increase in the number of people from Turkey and Iran, seeking protection and still awaiting decisions – from 10,000 to 14,000 for Turks and from 18,000 to 21,000 for Iranians.
